Gun Ranges Destroyed By LA-Area Fires

The fires raging around Los Angeles has turned the terrain around the City of Angels into a virtual hellscape. A lot of people have lost homes and all their possessions and a lot of businesses have been destroyed. Among those are a handful of places important to the Second Amendment community.

Most of the range facilities at the Angeles Shooting Ranges in Little Tujunga Canyon, including the Moore N’ Moore Sporting Clays range, where nearly all structures burned to the ground this past week by the Creek Fire, still burning in the Angeles National Forest and surrounding areas near Sylmar. The blaze has charred over 15,000 acres, and it was about 80 percent contained Saturday morning. The fire destroyed 105 structures and residences and damaged 70 others, including most of the range facilities.

Combined, the shotgun, rifle, pistol, silhouette, and tactical training ranges are where hundreds of thousands of shooters from across Southern California compete and practice each year. While all of the facility managers say they will be rebuilding, the loss of the ranges – even temporarily – will have a serious impact on recreational shooting in the region.

Of all the buildings at the ranges, only the Reloading Store and Hunter Education Classroom trailer weren’t burned to the ground in the fire. At the main range, the range office and all the benches burned. At Moore N’ Moore Sporting Clays, all the buildings and trailers were burned, and the club lost a about half of its target throwers. There is currently no electricity to the complex.

Luckily, the main rifle and pistol ranges are slated to open the first of the year, but this is a tentative date.

Look, I’m not going to paint this into some long, politically-focused post about the anti-gun nature of California. I could, but I won’t. It’s not really relevant to anything right now.

What matters is that ranges are essential to exercising your right to keep and bear arms. Without places to shoot, our brothers and sisters in the Los Angeles area will have even less ability to enjoy our sacred freedoms. It’s hard enough to do so where they are at the best of times.

This ain’t the best of times.

Luckily, we can do more than feel bad for them. There are a couple of GoFundMe pages for area ranges to help them get back on their feet:

Kick in what you can to one or both of these ranges. Help them get back on their feet and remind people that the pro-Second Amendment community is made up of kind, generous souls. Let’s help our fellow shooters get back out to the range by making sure there are ranges for them to go to in the first place.

There’s no politics involved, and for once, that’s a good thing. If you can help, please do so. I know everyone impacted will be extremely thankful for the assistance, particularly by people who will probably never shoot at the ranges in question.